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Opening Ceremony

CHRISTOPHER SHANNON, Michael van der Ham and Nasir Mazhar created costumes for tonight's Opening Ceremony, as worn by 350 dancers in a segment of the show representing the "present and future of the extraordinary influence of British creatives in the world of youth culture".

The trio were chosen by Suttirat Larlab - event director Danny Boyle's creative director - after being introduced by the British Fashion Council, most notably by BFC ambassador for emerging talent Sarah Mower. Each of the designers are based in London's East End, not far from where the Opening Ceremony was held tonight.

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"The British Fashion Council is delighted to be supporting British fashion's contribution to the Opening Ceremony," said BFC chief executive Caroline Rush. "We are thrilled that the creative directors of the Opening Ceremony decided to work with some of the most exciting emerging British talent based in the East End to help create costumes for key elements of the Ceremony as well as using more established talents to help dress some of the performers. The British Fashion Council promotes leading British Fashion Designers in a global market. Our events and initiatives support and strengthen the UK's reputations for developing design excellence. There could not be a more outstanding showcase for this talent than the Olympics, and we are delighted to have played a small part in showing the best of Great Britain's creative talent."

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Other British fashion designers to take part in the event were Jonathan Saunders, who dressed performer Emeli Sandé; as well as Palmer Harding and Richard James - with both labels providing clothing for the flag-bearers.

"The fashion industry was invited to meet with LOCOG several years ago and then 18 months ago I followed this up with the head of ceremonies, Martin Green, who in turn introduced me to the creative team of the Opening Ceremony," Daniel Marks - director of The Communications Store, who helped spearhead the BFC project - told us. "With the support of the British Fashion Council, we were able to help. The Opening Ceremony couldn't represent British culture without a strong show from the fashion world."

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"We considered the size of the space, the lighting, choreography and also what would work well on screen," said Shannon. "Going back through the archive we reworked quite graphic clean pieces, ones that would work well on different body shapes and also allow the performers to move. It's a bit like a fashion show but on the biggest scale imaginable."

"I loved the way Danny and Suttirat wanted to focus on individuality within the ceremony and therefore the 350 plus costumes are divided up in to so many different designs and fabrications," added van der Ham. "Rather than uniformed dance costumes. I basically collaged together references in each look that had to do with youth culture: striped jersey T-shirts, polo shirts, denim pencil skirts: really, everyday garments."

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"I grew up in this area of London, the stadium is practically next to my first studio in my grandparent's house," said Mazhar. "It is a huge honour to be part of something as special as the Olympics and to be able to showcase my work to such a huge global audience."